On Rag Radio we discuss Aaron Sorkin’s heralded yet controversial new movie, The Trial of the Chicago 7. Thorne Dreyer’s guests are original Yippie Judy Gumbo and longtime activist and SDS veteran Alice Embree.
The seven (eight if you count Bobby Seale, whose case was eventually severed from the others) were involved in planning demonstrations at the Chicago Democratic National Convention in August 1968 and all were charged with a federal crime of inciting to riot. Both Judy (who managed the defendants’ trial office for a while) and Alice had connections to the events and host Dreyer was at the demonstrations that led to the charges. The controversy involves some liberties that Sorkin took in reconstructing the events and presenting the central characters, especially Dave Dellinger and Tom Hayden. The film is rated 90 on Rotten Tomatoes by both critics and audiences.
Judy Gumbo was an original Yippie and Abbie Hoffman told her she “should have been indicted” for the events in Chicago. Judy is one of very few Americans to visit North Vietnam while the war still raged. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover named Judy, “the most vicious, the most anti-American and the most dangerous to the internal security of the United States.” Judy spent most of her professional career as an award-winning fundraiser for Planned Parenthood. Judy is the widow of Stew Albert, one of the founders of the Yippies.
Alice Embree is an Austin-based writer and activist who serves on the board of directors of the New Journalism Project. She is associate editor of The Rag Blog and a frequent guest host on Rag Radio. Alice worked with SDS in Austin and nationally, worked with the Congress on Latin America NACLAwas active in the women’s movement and contributed to Sisterhood is Powerful. She was a founder of the original Rag in 1966 and an editor of the book, Celebrating The Rag: Austin’s Iconic Underground Newspaper.
Zoom image: Clockwise from top left: Thorne Dreyer, Tracey Schulz, Judy Gumbo, Alice Embree.
Rag Radio is produced in the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, an all-volunteer, cooperatively-run, solar powered community radio station in Austin, Texas, in association with The Rag Blog and the New Journalism Project, a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit. It is streamed live on the Internet at KOOP.org and Radio Free America. The host and producer of Rag Radio, Thorne Dreyer, is a prominent Austin-based activist and writer who was a pioneer of the ’60s underground press movement.
The show’s engineer and co-producer is Tracey Schulz and the staff photographer is Roger Baker; Suzy Shelor is Rag Radio associate; Alice Embree is guest host; and Glenn Smith and Roy Casagranda are our political analysts.
The syndicated show is broadcast (and streamed) live Fridays, 2-3 p.m. Central) on KOOP, and is later rebroadcast and streamed on WFTE-FM in Mt. Cobb and Scranton, PA., on Houston Pacifica's KPFT HD-3 90.1, by KKRN, 88.5-FM in Round Mountain, CA, and at WALHRadio.com in Wilmington, OH. Learn more about Rag Radio here.
Running Time: 54:05
Contact: ragradio@koop.org.